The Cat and the Spider
by Baran3
Summary: A young girl from earth probable Marysue or at least very powerful is taken from her dimension and thrown into the world of Faerûn. She is taken as a slave by the Drow in the Underdark city of Sheoloth. She must survives or die horribly or worse.
1. Prelude

**THE**** CAT AND THE SPIDER**

Disclaimer: I own nothing except Shan Mao. All are property of some who have biggest lawyers and more money than me, so I will not even try to irritate them.

Summary: A young girl from earth (probable Mary-sue or at least very powerful) is taken from her dimension and thrown into the world of Faerûn.

She is taken as a slave by the Drow in the Underdark city of Sheoloth. She must survives or die horribly (hence the need of a very powerful character).

**Prelude**

_My name is Xian Mao or Shan Mao__ for those who can't properly speak good mandarin. _

_I am a normal modern Chinese teenager of sixteen years living in Beijing. Well almost normal since I was born albinos._

_Yes, it's not common. My schoolmates called me 'ghost girl' with my alabaster skin, red-pink eyes and especially my waist-long bone-white hair._

_I live with my family: my father, my mother and my grand__-mother. I am a unique child. I have however rather traditional hobbies of mine. _

_It's due to my g__rand-mother who showed me the old china. Because of her I develop a grand interest in the martial arts. _

_Due to my condition I couldn't enjoy outside activities because of my sun-sensitive skin. _

_I was relegated to indoors sports and throw myself into Wu Shu. Wu Shu is the national form of martial art approved by our government. It was a good base for me and enabled me to progress in others Chinese martial arts such as Tai Chi Chuan and Shaolin Kung-Fu. _

_My culture is an amazing thing for a westerner mind. Our people constantly reinvent our history and way of life with each political crisis and subsequent new governments._

_What about me?__ I'm not sure. I really don't know what to think of my people. Don't get me wrong I love my country, respect my ancestors and obey my government. But I'm not sure of my place in this society._

_For now, I'm following the current. I listen to the teachers, I do what my parents say and I learn what my grand-mother imparts on me. But I don't know what the future reserve for me._

_Well, a__t least until the 'incident'._

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Characters:

Xian Mao (Shan Mao or immortal cat, future drow name Faeryl): a Chinese girl of sixteen years. Nicknamed ghost girl because she's an albinos. Pale white skin, red-pink eyes and long bone-white hair. A few called her 'Shampoo' because she practices martial arts, more specifically Wu Shu and has 'cat' in her name. She is considered as a multiclass martial artist/warlock (open content rules on the net and Complete Arcane book) in the rules of Dungeons and dragons version 3.5, specialized in all-around techniques and Chi-manipulation. She is a soul-merging of her, a sacred silver-stripped female tabby cat of Eilistraee the Dark Maiden and Vierna Do'Urden, priestess of Lolth who rebelled against the Spider Queen at the very moment of her death in the arms of her brother Drizzt Do'Urden. Here is her sheet for the very moment she enters the Underdark, since she has been trained in her world, she is not a first level character:

Name: Xian Mao (Shan Mao/Faeryl). Class: martial artist level 3/ warlock level 1. Effective level: 6 (4 level character +2 ECL)

Race: half-drow (human-drow soul-merge). Alignment: neutral good. Deity: Eilistraee and Lolth.

Size: 1m55 (medium). Age: 16 years. Gender: female. Weight: 55 kg. Eyes: red-pink.

Hair: ivory white (silver now). Skin: pale white.

Strength: 13 (+1). Dexterity: 18 (+4). Constitution: 14 (+2). Intelligence: 13 (+1).

Wisdom: 15 (+2). Charisma: 17 (+3).

Hit points: 29. Armour class: 17 (no armour). Touch AC: 17. Flat-footed AC: 10.

Speed: 30 feet. Initiative: +4. Fortitude: +5. Reflexes: +7. Will: +7. (+9 against spells and spell-like effects, +11 against enchantments and enchantment-like effects)

Base attack bonus: +4. Spell resistance: 15. Grapple modifier: +4.

Attack: unarmed strike. Attack bonus: +8. Damage: 1d8+1. Critical: X2. Range: none. Type: bludgeoning. Notes: lethal or non-lethal, always light weapon, no off-hand penalty.

Attack: eldritch blast. Attack bonus: +8. Damage: 1d6. Critical: X2. Range: 60 feet. Type: ray attack. Notes: ranged touch attack, no saving throw.

Skills levels/total/carac: balance +4/(+8)/(dex), bluff +4/(+7)/(cha), climb +2/(+3)/(str), concentration +4/(+6)/(con), craft weaponsmithing +1/(+2)/(int), escape artist +2/(+10)/(dex), heal +1/(+3)/(wis), intimidate +2/(+5)/(cha), jump +4/(+5)/(str), listen +1/(+5)/(wis, CC), perform flute +1/(+4)/(cha), perform dance +1/(+4)/(cha), ride +1/(+5)/(dex), sense motive +4/(+6)/(wis), search +1/(+4)/(int, CC), spellcraft +1/(+2)/(int), spot +1/(+5)/(wis, CC), swim +1/(+2)/(str), tumble +4/(+8)/(dex), use magic device +1/(+4)/(cha).

Feats: _Two-Weapon Fighting_ (reduce two-weapon fighting penalties by 2), _iron will_ (+2 bonus will save) and _weapon finesse_ (unarmed strike).

Regional feat: _magic in the blood_ (You can use racial spell-like abilities three times per day instead of one.),_ contortionist._ (+4 escape artist and considered one size category smaller)

Special abilities (unknown initially and powerful since Vierna was a high level priestess): immunity to _sleep_ spells and effects, +2 bonus against enchantments spells and effects, +2 bonus against spells and spell-like abilities, +2 bonus on listen-search-spot skills, automatic search check within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door, dark vision of 60 feet, considered as a drow and a human in regard to spells, spell effects and magical objects, racial spell-like abilities 3/day (_dancing lights, darkness, faerie fire, levitate, detect good, detect magic, clairvoyance, detect lie, suggestion and dispel magic_), two bonus feats of _martial weapon proficiency_ (rapier and short sword), bonus feat of _exotic weapon proficiency_ (hand crossbow) and _light blindness_ (due to the half-drow template and her albinism).

Martial artist capabilities: _weapons proficiency_ (simple weapons, Chinese weapons due to her culture and monk weapons), bonus to armour class, _flurry of blows_ (one extra attack par round, penalty -2 all attacks) with unarmed strike, light weapons and monk weapons, _improved unarmed strike_ bonus feat, _surge_ 1/day (base speed +20 feet, +2 haste bonus to AC, penalty _flurry of bows_ and _lightning flurry_ minus one, last three rounds + constitution bonus then fatigue), _finishing move_ +1d6, martial secrets of _agile mind _(+4 points of skills) and _monkey foot work_ (+1 bonus dodge to AC).

Warlock capabilities: _light armour proficiency, simple weapons proficiency_, _eldritch blast_, least invocation of _hideous blow_.

Languages: common (English), Chinese (mandarin and Cantonese) plus progressive discovery of unconscious knowledge of elven (drow dialect), undercommon and drow sign language.

No gold and equipment.

Eilistraee: Drow goddess who witnessed first the entrance of the young girl along with her allies Mystra, goddess of Magic (detects the rift in the Weave and closed it, she couldn't send back Shan Mao due to an edict of Ao) and Séluné, goddess of the Moon (takes pity of the young girl and decides to support Eilistraee in her actions with the mortal). She immediately saw the danger but was unable to help her. She manages to inject the essence of one of her silver-stripped female tabby cat in the soul of the mortal and mark her (silver hair) in order to give her a chance of survival. (Cat-like capabilities, including personality alterations. Agility, speed, balance, hunter instincts, night-vision and cat-level senses and claws. In fact all feline-like capacities of the monster manual who will develop in time: Speed 40 to 50 feet, _improved grab_, _pounce_, rake technique with feet-claws, lowlight vision, scent, sprint, _alertness_, _run, track, weapon focus_ for the claws, _improved natural attack_ with the claws and bite, development of claws and sharp teeth, _stealthy_, feline empathy, _combat reflexes, improved initiative, iron will, weapon finesse_ for the claws, _improved trip_, skills: hide, listen, move silently, spot, jump, swim, balance, handle animal for feline only and climb.)

Lolth: The Spider Queen, major drow goddess who detect the passage of Shan Mao when she crossed the veil in the Underdark. She remarked the unusual amount of energy gained by the mortal during the dimensional travel and decide to exploit it. She tags her soul with the essence of one of her renegade priestesses: Vierna Do'Urden, the elder sister of Drizzt Do'Urden. (All of the half-drow template capabilities and the addition of the clerical and noble powers of Vierna, including spell-like powers of _dancing lights, darkness, faerie fire, levitate, know alignment, detect magic, clairvoyance, detect lie, suggestion_ and _dispel magic_. Dark vision of 60 feet, drow blood, resistance to magic, spell-resistance, sleep immunity, augmentation dexterity and intelligence, diminution of endurance and finally bonus on the perception.) Then she unlocked the amazing energy potential in her (her warlock class due to the soul of Vierna). Finally, she redirected her flight on the city of Sheoloth (a small drow city in numbers compared to Menzoberranzan and a potential threat for the chaos goddess) and waited to see the chaos developed.


	2. two goddesses under one roof

**THE CAT AND THE SPIDER**

Disclaimer: I own nothing except Shan Mao.

Notes: This story is an old project. It was also a dream of mine to have a RPG character from a modern setting founding himself in the Forgotten Realms. I have not found a master willing to do it except during a convention. The game was very good and fun. I took great pleasure in playing the numerous problems encountered by a modern person in a medieval setting. The concept of the extra-dimensional exiled is a staple of Asian animation. Read and dream…

**Chapter 1: Two goddesses under one roof …**

It was the classic standard school-travel organized countless of times in countless countries. It was a however something of a treat for Shan Mao: a demonstration of Shaolin style Kung-Fu in the central court of a temple. Three masters and about a dozen of disciples were 'performing' for the mass of tourists and schools.

Of course they were 'showing off' but it was not a problem for the 'ghost-girl' who was observing the katas with almost an obsessive streak. Such demonstrations were, in fact very cleverly disguised means of giving the knowledge of the Art to a maximum of people in plain sight of the government.

Most of the principles of the Art were based on the 'Chi'. Chi was the expression of the living force or energy that exists in anything. The martial artist was capable of controlling and using this force to do legendary feats. The 'Wire-Fu' films contained exaggerated examples of such feats. But of course, for the government the existence of Chi was merely a superstition and so was ignored.

For Shan Mao and a bunch of special people it was a grandiose spectacle. Few can say that they are chi-sensitive but she was one of them. The feat needs normally years of study but she has always been a quick study.

Shan Mao was a rather curious sight. Her pale skin was contrasted by the severe grey uniform of her school, her sunglasses and the open sun-umbrella in her hand marked her as an anomaly. It was a rather strange thing to see a young modern Chinese schoolgirl contrasted by the solemn and formal exercise of the Shaolin monks.

The rest of the visit was normal for the entire class. The traditional picnic, the taking of photography by the classmates and the ever presence of the teachers making sure that everything was all right. It was in one of the pagoda that Shan Mao met her destiny.

This particular pagoda was the result of hundred of years of traditions and uses of Feng-Shui, the art of placement of living structures within the natural path of Chi that lined the Earth. Linked to the natural cycle of the Universe, the lines ebbed and flew in the time. The pagoda was built on a natural convergence of multiples lines: a nexus of Chi. Fate or Destiny, the flow of energy spiked as the sun set in the zenith and a young girl sensible to the presence of Chi entered the nexus.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At the same time, an unbelievably powerful entity residing in a total vacuum took note of the spike and how it interacted with the reality in his charge. Frowning, he rapidly checked the lines of the foreign destiny about to intertwine with some of his own and smiled. It was not in his mandate to interfere with a natural event but he could always take action in an indirect fashion. His Guardians of Balance were about to be tested again. He just has to make sure that no one stopped the ball for the Forgotten Realms.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She immediately felt something strange as she entered the structure. Her skin tingled and she felt light-headed. The pagoda was empty to her eyes and yet she felt an immense presence. It was something quite remarkable since she should have sensed it before entering the temple. It was not hostile but it makes her feel anxious. She felt herself drawn to the centre of the pagoda and then it happened.

The nexus reach his threshold and explode around the Chinese teenager. Chi amplified by the convergence of many lines, the presence of practitioners of martial arts and the natural energy of the zenith sun flow into the living receptacle available in the pagoda instead of dissipating in the nature.

Taken by surprise, incapable to use or control such a massive quantity of energy, the 'ghost-girl' was swapped by the current of Chi and brought along the path. She purely and simply disappeared from the pagoda and the world in general. No one found a trace of her and for the government she simply became another number in the numbers of missing people. Her parents did everything in their power to at least confirm if she was alive but mourned her after many years. Only her grand-mother never believed that she died and until her last breath prayed for her safety wherever she was.

She was in an immense and total pain. That was the first thing that imposed itself on Shan Mao. Even the kaleidoscope of lights around her was not perceived in the beginning. The pain was so intense that she could not even scream. She was falling, falling between the worlds, falling in the interstice of reality. Foreign energies were trying to unravel her very existence but since she was protected by the overcharge of Chi of her native home world, they were mixing in the material and spiritual structure of her being. Then after an infinitesimal moment of an eternity of torture, a rift in the barrier of another reality drew her like iron dust is drawn to a magnet.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The three entities were having one the few moment of peace that three goddesses can have in their reality. Mystra had invited Eilistraee to dance within the stars under the full moon and Séluné choose to come as well. The Goddess of Magic was firing streams of shooting stars, building a lane for her dance-partners. Eilistraee, the Dark Maiden of the good Drow was dancing an antique rhythm, already old when Faerûn was young. Séluné was using her soft lunar light and the merriment of her laugh to the enjoyment of her peers. Then Mystra felt it …

The Goddess of Magic stopped her divine fireworks and turned her full attention on the Weave of the mystical energies in her charge. There was something there.

"What is it Daughter?" asked the Moon-Goddess. Even if she was the third incarnation of the Goddess of Magic, Séluné has always considered the new Mystra like her daughter as was Mystril, the first goddess of Magic.

"I'm not sure. It's the first time that I sense such an event." The mighty Goddess focused on the material structure of reality itself. "It's a … rift. It's a goddamned rift between our universe and another and … Oh! No! There's a living being trapped in the transit. We have an outsider in our realm!"

"So? What is the problem?" The drow Goddess looked at the worried face of her ally and summoned her own power of observation to scry the event. "She is only a mortal, and young at that. She can not be a huge potential problem."

"You are correct on a relative scale, but for her it is a huge problem. Due to Ao edicts, I can not help her to go back to her home world. Any outsider of our reality must be left alone without direct intervention on our part until Ao integrates them to the Fates and Destinies of our world. This rift is endangering the Weave, although only on a local point and so I must act." Mystra was manifesting anxiety. "I must close the passage after she crosses it."

"And so, she will be trapped in our reality. Can she not use some of the magic of our world to open a gate to her own home world?" The Dancing Maiden was curious. There was something about the mortal girl that intrigued her or more exactly the direction of her path.

"Not without a direct divine intervention. No current mortal mage has the power to open a path to the others realities." Séluné understood the problem of her daughter. Mystra has still retained the humanity of the mortal Midnight after the Time of Troubles but she has matured into her role of Goddess and she will not defy Ao now.

"By Ao's blood! Her astral path is taking her directly into a portal of the middle Underdark!" Eilistraee was alarmed. A young human mortal like this girl was completely unprepared to survive the rigors of the Underdark, especially so near a concentration of her people under the control of her accursed mother, Lolth, the Spider queen.

As she prepared to use her power to close the wound between realities, Mystra noted that her friend was right. The mortal was on a direct course with an ancient and malfunctioning portal that was leaking dimensional energy in the Middledark. "If you want to do something, do it now, before she crosses the interface. We can still do something directly to her since she is not yet in our reality."

Séluné retired her consciousness of her scrying, having dived deeply into the soul of the young girl and taken her decision. "My daughter is correct. I will support you in your action, Dark Maiden. This mortal merits our pity and all the help we can give to her. By my power, so be it!"

Eilistraee considered carefully her options. She wanted to help Shan Mao as her scrying has revealed the name of the outsider but she could not be too obvious. Discretion and adaptation were the key words in this situation. She felt a tug on her bare ankle and lowered her gaze.

"Please, Mistrrrrress, let me help herrrr." The small silver-stripped tabby cat was floating alongside her Goddess. Sacred beasts used by the Dancing Maiden as messengers or helpers for her faithful, the female feline was much older than her appearance.

"Helping her? How? Filfaere, if I sent you to her as you are you'll be mere meat for the followers of my Mother." The drow Goddess was seizing her servant, searching in her wise and tranquil feline gaze why she was making such a suggestion.

"In my currrrent forrrrm, you arrre rrright. You need to initiate a soul-merrrging rrritual with herrr." It was rare for a goddess to be flabbergasted by one of her servitors but that was the case now.

"A soul-merging? Filfaere, you will cease to exist as you are now. Even this young girl will be altered for all eternity. Don't forget that you have been touched by the divine. I can not now seize all the consequences of such an act."

"I know. But I can sense something feline in this merrre kitten. Something to be prrreserrrved at all cost. Beside, I think it will be grrreat to experrriment the materrrial plane thrrrough the body of this one." The female cat was calmly observing the approaching outsider.

"Well, it's your decision. And you are right. There is something feline in her." The Dark Maiden smiled. "This is something that will be augmented when your nature merges with her. Are you prepared?"

The divine cat nodded and released her hold on her material form. A pure silvery whirlwind of moon fire manifested in her place and Eilistraee began to dance around it in complexes circumvolutions, drawing energy from the Weave and further refining it with the soft light of Séluné.

The ritual dance was akin to a formal adoption of a non-drow into the Dark Race. In effect, Eilistraee was taking Shan Mao as an elf-friend among her children with the blessing of the Moon Goddess. The spiral of the dance grew tighter and tighter and Filfaere essence was reduced to a mere speck but very brilliant. The voice of the Dancing Maiden grew crescendo and the antique elf magic captured two souls in its grasp.

Filfaere silvery consciousness dissolved into the white-blue light of the young girl soul. Purposely she chose to submit her spirit to Shan Mao and merged deeply into her sub consciousness. Now Shan Mao will stay Shan Mao and only manifesting feline characteristics and a bit of her personality when the assimilation will be complete.

Séluné witnessed the merging with approval. The two souls have merged without difficulty or stress. In fact, the ritual had stabilized the emotional turmoil of the young girl. The only visible sign was the change of colour of the mortal hair. From an ivory-white, it has become pure silver colour identical to the awesome mane of the Dark Maiden.

Then Shan Mao crossed the interface between the two realities and Mystra abruptly began to cast a charm around the three goddesses in the same time that the rift was closed by her willpower.

"What is it Mystra? What is the problem now?" Eilistraee drew her bastard sword in the case of a sudden danger.

"Look." The Moon Goddess pointed into another location on the divine realms. Protected from detection by the charm of Mystra, the three allies remarked that they were no longer the only witnesses of the crossing-over.

"Lolth." The Dancing Maiden hissed the name with bitter venom.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Spider Queen was looking through a giant blood-red crystal ball in her giant mobile fortress shaped as an arachnid. "Very interesting…" The evil drow Goddess was smiling shark-like. She was analyzing the scene with her own powers of scrying and she was drooling at all the chaotic possibilities detected. Here was a mortal outsider of her reality. It was something almost unknown in Faerûn and something easily moulded by her.

She remembered the Edicts of Ao about Outsiders like this wisp of girl, but she was resourceful and cunning. She didn't have to intervene directly as the path taken by the mortal was near another settling of her followers.

Sheoloth was a city not unlike Menzoberranzan laden with strife and chaos. It was a relative long time since she has neglected this particular area. Her 'problems' with the first Drow city of the Underdark have taken quite a bit of her time.

She looked upon the events of the Time of Troubles with a sceptical eye. She has been forced to concentrate what little she had on one city at that time. But, now, she seemed to have fallen to the other extreme. She has recovered her power but she was still focalized on one location.

It was time to change her focus 'a little'. She laughed and insanity crept into those who could hear her. Well, since she couldn't directly intervene upon the helpless mortal, she could…help her…a little.

But how? So many delicious choices and so little time. She once again probed the young Chinese girl. Interesting, the transition has charged her essence with some powerful energies. She must have control of such energy.

Her gazed wandered around her as she pondered on her conundrum. She stopped on a black-glass bottle. This particular object held the soul of a former follower. She was being punished then since…

Yes! Oh yes! Here was a good idea. A wicked and cruel very good idea. She smirked as she reached the bottle. A pale violet glow was feebly dancing in it. It was the very soul of Vierna Do'Urden, the sister of Drizzt Do'Urden.

The priestess has faltered after being killed in self-defence by her brother. For one brief instant, she has been comforted by him and nearly slipped into the light of Goodness. Ha! As if she would let a traitor escaped her clutches.

Her tortures had almost broken the soul. The spider-Queen didn't want for her fun to finish so early. She intended to use this human girl to ensure her firm control of Sheoloth. Pain and suffering were simply icing on the cake.

She considered her options and nodded. It will do nicely. It will give the girl better chance of initial survival and open the road to her future control. At the same time, she will continue the torment of Vierna until the pale mortal die.

"Oops…How clumsy I am." Lolth let the bottle fell into her scrying globe. The glass recipient hit the moving form in it and shattered. The pale violet glow mixed with the blue-white colour of the soul of Shan Mao.

Free for a moment but incapable of coherency due to her ordeal, the consciousness of Vierna did the best she could. She reached into the deep of the mortal soul and waited for her eventual awakening.

Unfortunately she was caught in the strings of the soul-merging spell of Eilistraee and the magical ritual began anew. Like with Filfaere, the soul of the Drow will become one with Shan Mao for all eternity, her personality submerged by the young girl and her racial capacities will appear over time.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the eternal night of the Underdark, an old portal misused and almost forgotten began to glow anew. A violent purple light erupted and scared the life-forms around the door. None too gently a humanoid form was thrown on the hard cold floor.

Her clothes in tatters, deep in unconsciousness and bleeding from a few cuts, the young Chinese girl has arrived in Toril. Energies of silvery and violet colours coursed her body until they seeped in it. The cold silence of the Underdark covered the displaced martial artist in her slumber and the laugh of Lolth echoed in the chamber.


	3. the Underdark

**THE CAT AND THE SPIDER**

Disclaimer: I own nothing except Shan Mao.

Notes: I didn't want to use Menzoberranzan because this city has been used and reused both in the fan-fictions and the originals books. The other drow cities didn't seemed better in my eyes, so I used Sheoloth with some modifications to allow it in the world of Forgotten Realms. Another source of inspiration was Drow Tales but I could not steal from such a great work.

**Chap 2: The Underdark.**

The party of Neshad Luzkar was slowly advancing in the rock tunnel. The wizard of the group was sure of him: a powerful magical surge has come from this direction. Without it, they would have never uncovered this passage.

Neshad was a Drow, a Dark Elf. This particular race was the bane of the Underdark. Refined, cruel and magically powerful, the Drow strived in the darkness. Their darkvision enabled them to see in the complete obscurity as an inversed black and white picture.

The Underdark was very dangerous, even for the top predator of the food chain. Wicked scimitars with a magical edge and hand-crossbows with poisoned bolts were standard weapons for the Drow. Chain-mails of black adamantine enchanted to make no noise protected their bodies. But the most dangerous feature of this race was their magical potential.

Armed with innate magical powers, the Drow were also the most redoubtable of the spell-casters. Coupled with their cruelty and cunning and you have a race that only the fools or the most powerful would challenge.

Neshad of the Luzkar family was a noble and the leader of the group. That only meant that he had to watch his back when giving orders. He was an opportunist and a survivalist with a particular interest in the flesh market. He positively loved the thrill of the hunt and capture of sentient life.

There was seemingly little gain for this exploration but he had learnt to take such chances because he had discovered that there was a silver lining in everything, even death. After all, if you died, you were liberated from the suffering of life.

The scout stopped ahead of them and signalled to the main group in the sign language. The Drow had developed a silent language almost as efficient as the spoken one. "_Obstacles ahead, mechanic and magical_."

Neshad looked to their wizard. "_Open way_."

The mage advanced and begin to cast. Most of the party prepared themselves to dodge an ill-aimed spell. Such 'accidents' were current. The vision of the magic-user was rendered sensible to the blue-white energy of the magic. Yes, there was a dweomer here and here. He cast another spell which haloed the traps.

The wizard made short work of the various traps and spells around the entrance of a stone chamber. Neshad was excited, those were old enchantments. There should be something nice in the protected room. One of the warriors opened the door.

What a deception, almost nothing. There was a portal but it was visibly out of commission. There were a few chests but all were smashed, their contents long gone. There was…huh? The body of a small humanoid was on the floor near the inoperative portal.

Prudence is a key word for the Drow. Prevention was also used many times. A bolt with the sleep-poison of the dark elves was launched. The body trembled a little at the impact but remained into slumber. The party quickly and efficiently secured and searched the stone chamber: Nothing.

Well nothing except the body. Neshad rolled it on its back after checking for nasty hidden spell-traps. Surprise, it was a girl, a human girl with the most peculiar colours seen on a human. Her skin was a pale white and her hair silver. She was dressed in a tattered strange grey outfit. She had no possessions.

He shrugged. She was probably a victim of the malfunctioning portal. Nothing interesting in her, he just had to make it quick. He drew a dagger and stopped suddenly. On the throat he was about to slit was a spider.

It was a black widow with elven smiling lips: the symbol of the possession of a spider by the sacred presence of Lolth. Their divinity was stopping him to kill the girl. He quickly knelt imitated by his party enduring without stress the sudden flux of thousands of arachnids in the room.

The spider slowly crawled on the white skin of the neck and bite in it. It was the sign of the favour of the chaotic goddess. Apposed on a living being, it marked her to be a gift from the deity. This young human girl was a gift of their goddess for the Drow. The mark was magical and would never fade as long as the favour of Lolth remained.

Satisfied that her intention was understood the representation of the Spider-Queen skittered away. Neshad signalled to his warriors to take the human. Well, he was a slave merchant and it was not the first time that others races received the 'Kiss of the Spider'. He smiled. She should fetch a very good price on the market.

His men quietly bound her with spider-silk ropes and he affixed a travelling slave-collar on her slender neck. Those collars were enchanted to silence the slave and shrunk slowly if they were taken away a distance limit of a slaver ring attuned to it: Simple, efficient, deadly, cruel, Drow.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The dreams were vivid. They were also the same for all concerned. Lolth manifested her will in nightmarish symbols. Since she couldn't give direct orders to her followers because of the Edict of Ao, she used obscure symbols that would confuse them on the subject of the albino girl. Mixed with it was a very specific order impossible to misinterpret.

When the high priestess of the church of the Spider-Queen reunited for the rituals of the 'day' they found that all have made the same dream. It was the sure sign of the will of Lolth.

The Dark Eight were the most powerful and influential of the priestesses. The position was not hereditary but acquired and paid by blood, power and treason. Wearing magical masks known as Facewebs they were the power of the goddess Lolth in Sheoloth.

"Everybody had received the same dream? Interesting. Praise to Lolth!" Velduuna the Vile was the current leader of the Dark Eight. She obtained her position by the use of insidious plague-spells that bestowed incurable diseases. Her most striking feature was the left dead eye that cast an unsettling blind gaze on her interlocutors.

"Yes, it was very interesting, especially her will to allow the recreation of the eighth clan." Jezdivyn Urklaar was the most physical of the council. She preferred to use her hands to kill instead of weapons or spells.

"What about the human girl? What of her?" Hylviar Lusakras frowned as she thought of the filthy white wench. Most adept of the art of torture among her sisters, she was also known for her prowess in…the art of the bedroom…when her partners escaped alive.

This question triggered a polemic which threatened to boil into a fight. None were in accord with the significance of the human girl. Finally a consensus emerged. The council will approve of the recreation of the eighth noble family. Edicts will be published for the chosen by the goddess to come to the temple of the Web of the Dark Mother to prove that they have been chosen.

Once that the new clan will be installed in the cavern of the Noble Labyrinth and declared protected by the Will of the Spider-Queen, a hunt for the mysterious girl will begin. She will be the property of the winner. The only restriction will be the interdiction to kill her as long as the favour of Lolth remained.

"You know that by making her a status symbol, the others clans will try to take her for themselves or more simply kill her."

"Yes."

The entire council laughed at that. The will of the goddess will be enforced and the struggle of the clans will weakened them. The resurgence of the Orishal family bolstered by new blood and the favour of Lolth will create a long strife among the Nobles who will no longer endanger the strangle-hold of the Dark Eight on the city.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Shan Mao regained consciousness, she thought she was in the train to Beijing. She was aware of a regular movement and the sensation of moving. She felt also…restrained

She opened her eyes on nothing. The darkness was so deep that it was almost tangible. With a growing horror, she felt that her limbs were bound by ropes and that she was on her stomach on a moving and silent animal.

She opened her mouth to scream but no sound was heard. She blinked. She had felt the passing of the air on her vocal chords and nothing. Panicked, she turned her head around, hoping to perceive something, anything. Only darkness greeted her.

She couldn't see them but around her, the party of Drow on the back of their rock-lizards were silently laughing of her distress: The handicap of having only a normal vision in the Underdark was one of the best tools to restrain slaves. Incapable to perceive the environment, the foolish who tried to escape died very quickly.

Neshad Luzkar smiled. The girl was ready for the next phase. He pointed his finger on her and haloed her with faerie fire. The silent scream and the widening of her eyes were honey for his jaded senses. The shock, the fear and the very nectar of her raw emotions were so delicious to him.

'_What in the name of the Yama Kings are they_?!' She was irradiated a pale white light but that was secondary to what the illumination revealed. She was bound on the saddle of a…giant Komodo Dragon? The rider was a black-skinned…elf? She couldn't believe her eyes: Her mount was surrounded by half a dozen of other identical creatures mounted by elves with pointed ears, white hair and red eyes.

The lizards were almost silently running along the walls of a fantastic tunnel in the rock. With stupefaction, she even saw them running along a vertical wall like they were flies. She gulped as she considered the equipment of her kidnappers. They were all armed with nasty and very realistic looking medieval weapons.

During a movement, she felt the metallic collar around her neck. '_What the…Am I being kidnap by white slavers_?' The thought was not very reassuring. The chaffing of the ropes was also proof that she was not dreaming. But where was she?

Without any warning, the pale light disappeared and she found herself in complete darkness once again. As the hours passed, silent tears fell from her eyes as the situation looked more and more grim.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She perceived at long last a few lights ahead. It was the wavering red-orange light of torches. The illogical hope that surged in her heart crashed as she took in the scene in front of her. It was a nightmare.

The small puddle of light was not for the benefice of the dark-skinned elves, it was to maintain the bundle of despair in its centre: Slaves. It could only be slaves that she was seeing, some dozens of…creatures?

She blinked again at the spectacle. It could not be that. Among the people captured, she was seeing creatures of Myth. Testing the rope passed on his collar, a minotaur was looking desperately for an escape.

He was not the only creature that she recognized from her lecture of western books and her exploration of the Net. There were dwarves fiercely staring with hatred to their captors. A group of humans from the two sexes were attempting to calm two children among them. Greyish and bald dwarves were showing teeth to a clump of little green creatures. Two or three giant creatures were roaring…in silence? ...to another group of…fish-men?

Everyone were fitted with a dark-grey metallic collar and bound to another captive by a rope. The worst was the silhouettes of others dark-skinned elves guarding, mocking and tormenting the prisoners.

Shan Mao vision was exacerbated by the long period of darkness and by her genetic flaw. She could see many things. The slaves were more numerous than the slavers. The elves were all armed to the teeth. They were almost all male as she could only see one female among them.

The female elf was taller than the males. She was breathing pure arrogance and her chain-mail was richly decorated by web and spider designs. She blinked and looked around. The spider or web motif was present in one form or another on everyone but the slaves. Shan Mao was also feeling danger just by looking at her.

She was thrown in the mass by her captor and managed to roll with the impact although her muscles were sore from immobilization. The same captor approached her with an evil smile. Her eyes widened in fear at the curved dagger he drew but he only cut off her bounds before binding her to the human group by her collar.

Long hours of slow torture passed. The prisoners were not fed and received only a mouthful of water. Time and time again, a dark-skinned elf would choose a victim and torment her with hits and/or magic. It was a shock for the young Chinese girl to see real magic at work. At one time, a dwarf rebelled and was killed without mercy. The body was left slowly bleeding before his people and the others slaves.

She had attempted to communicate but the humans were wary of her because of her appearance. She couldn't think of why or how she was here. She remembered the feeling of immense power in the pagoda and the pain after that. She thought she had heard voices during that suffering and had felt wonderful warmth in her heart at two times. After that she had awaken on the back of giant lizard mount.

She observed that the elves communicate between them with a sign language. Silence seemed to be the rule here. After a long period, the signal was given to move. The slaves formed a column with the mounted elves around them. Whips were used to maintain the cohesion and the speed of the group.

Once again the endurance of many was tested during the long march. No stop, no water or food. With mounting dread she assisted to the execution of slaves too exhausted to carry on. It was then that she saw her first necromantic spell. The female elf had cast a spell and the cadaver was animated as a zombie. She had freaked but the bite of a whip had reminded her that such comportment was not tolerated.

She was not able to see it but she heard along the way many sounds that hinted of ferocious combat. Sometimes one of the riders came back wounded or didn't came back at all. In one case there had been a panic among the slaves as three living winged statues attacked them from the ceiling.

It was then that she discovered the nice little function of the collar. An ogre had managed to escape during the confusion. The column crossed his body strangulated by the collar some distance away.

The convoy arrived to a river system. Boats like drakkars were waiting for them here. The slaves were chained to the rows and the water travel begun. Shan Mao was sure that several days passed as they rowed by intervals, were fed hard drying black bread and a few mouthful of clean water. There was no hygiene or separation of sexes during this ordeal.

She smelt the arrival to their destination rather than seeing it. Very few sources of light were used because the elves didn't like them. A strong smell of mildew was perceptible. Pale glows that she knew now were the result of the magic of her captors appeared: It was a dock on the river.

Everything was made of stone and a curious material like dried sponge. However here was sound. The oppressing silence has been replaced by the brouhaha of a city: A city in the underground but a city nonetheless. Here also there were dark-skinned elves…and slaves of all races

With disbelief she also perceived fragments of the English language spoken among the throng of people. If she could have her collar gone she could communicate. Her physical condition has helped but she knew that everybody was on the verge of exhaustion.

The column was guided again by the whips and by shorts barks of the elves. They passed a massive gate in a heavily decorated cavern. Sculptures of many races were displayed, Shan Mao discerned that they were meant to belittle the race depicted and glorified the dark-skinned elf race. It was also when she met her first giant spider and almost panicked. Her collar and the sound of the whips reminded her in time that discipline was lethally enforced here.

They took a spiralling road along a gigantic shaft, probable result of an eruption as proved by the presence of a pool of magma at the bottom. Transports of all kinds were seen on the road. Lizards and spiders were predominant. Magical transportation was used also in the form of floating disks. Bewildered, Shan Mao also saw a few elves defying gravity by floating up or down the shaft.

The miserable group arrived in a massive carved cavern. Stone pillars soared up from the floor dwarfing tiny buildings huddled around the floor. At the top of three pillars, canopies made apparently of spider-silk glittered. It was also where the slaves saw the first corpselights.

Cadavers were suspended on posts and seemed to burn irradiating a sickly blue-green light. It was a horrific vision reinforced by the silent screams of the slaves at the spectacle. '_I'm in hell_!' was the preponderant thought of Shan Mao. The impression of a demoniac world was reinforced by the numerous entertainment businesses for the jaded that rivalled in depravity and horrors to catch the attention.

The slavers conducted their prizes to a warehouse building where they were 'processed'. All the slaves were stripped of their clothes and hosed by a magical contraption. The temperature of the air was high enough for not risking a cold but the sheer humiliation…

They were manacled and the few rebels whipped to the blood or hit by spells from sticks that seemed to cause immense pain. It was also where their collars were replaced by a chain. Shan Mao could have tried to speak to a few of her companions of infortune but the punishment of an ogre who started to roar at his captors was almost enough to make her puke. Under their eyes, a female elf looking like the one of the slaver party pointed her staff and a giant spider materialized and proceeded to eat the ogre…alive.

Around her, the dark-skinned elves were reacting as if the spectacle was amusing at best. Shan Mao shook in terror. She was among monsters that considered any life other than their own useless and disposable.

The slaves were corralled in a pen near an auction stage. The albino realized they were about to be sold.


	4. SlaveGirl of the Drow

**THE CAT AND THE SPIDER**

Disclaimer: I own nothing except Shan Mao.

Notes: The notion of the extra-dimensional exiled person is an old staple of mine. As I said before, I am an experimented Game Master in the role-playing community. The idea of a normal person sent into another fantasy world came from my considerable collection of Japanese Anime.

I do not think that Shan Mao will encounter the Big Guns of the Forgotten Realms or perhaps only as guest stars. Elminster and either of the Seven Sisters will be enchanted to help Shan Mao but I want to create a character that will deal exclusively with the Underdark. Drizzt would perfectly understand the need for this girl to do something against the insanity of Lolth.

For those who know about Sheoloth, you'll find that this version is rather…tamed in comparison to the original. My version is a blend of the original Sheoloth and everything written about the Drows in the Forgotten Realms and let's not forget the fantastic "Drow's Tales".

Warning: Mature themes.

**Chap 3: Slave-G****irl of the Drow.**

Shan Mao didn't think she could feel more mortified and embarrassed as she was being exposed on the auction block, manacled and…completely naked to a whole crowd.

A pale light shed by some magical stone torches gave an eerily aspect to everything as the silver-haired girl looked warily around her. The slaves were presented one by one on the raised platform and she really didn't like the expectation and enthusiasm of some of the buyers when they looked at the 'merchandise'. The fact that they were not only non-humans but a race of black-skinned Elves did very little to her already plummeting moral.

The Elves were speaking in a curious tongue, with an almost musical quality. It was strange to sense such a…fairy feature in a race that was…proudly displaying its cruelty. The acts before their auction and all the atrocities she witnessed since her capture didn't reassure her about her fate, rather the contrary. Survival for her would need both wits and luck…and she still would have to pay a heavy price for it.

The Chinese albino girl could already distinguish that she was in a caste-style culture as well as a matriarchal society. The Dark Elves were separated into those 'In Power' and those 'Without'. It was plainly visible in their clothes and their attitudes.

Due to the 'Dark Ages' flavour on the underground city, she could only called some few 'Nobles' and the majority of the rest 'Commoners' although 'Merchants' was another quite possible title for some.

But one thing she could really see was the raw power and arrogant authority of all the females present. In general, they were taller than the males and the latter let quite a large zone around the females sometimes instinctively.

Neshad Luzkar laughed silently in a corner of the market. He had been right: The mark of Lolth had disappeared from the neck of his new capture. He hadn't charged an extravagant price for her because he knew that should she survive, her simple existence would fetch a higher price in the future. The mark, in form of the two red triangles of a black widow, would only appear if the Goddess of Chaos still wanted to torment the young girl. He nodded to himself: He will assign someone to survey her.

On the stage, it was the turn of Shan Mao to be 'presented' as'merchandise' for the 'buyers'. The slave trader gesturing near her was talking like a car's salesman with a brand new 'second hand' acquisition. She supposed that her 'exotic look' would fetch a nice price for this jaded crowd.

She didn't know why, but once again, she was almost sure that his gestures were a language in themselves. Probably because a few Dark Elves in the crowd were signing like him.

She tensed, flinched and winced when the slaver began to expose her to the scrutiny of the buyers like an object, a property, a non-person.

Tears formed in her eyes as he palmed her skin, probably showing the smoothness of her young skin, manhandling her by her luxuriant mane of hair and roughly exposing her teeth to show their wholeness.

She was trembling when he finally finished, but didn't know if it was in fright, pure humiliation, impotent anger or a blend of all those.

Curiously, her appearance wasn't something that appealed the Dark Elves. She still couldn't discern the exact social class of the Elves, but the fellow that buy her seemed to be a merchant or middle-class.

She wasn't the only acquisition of this particular Dark Elf. If she was any judge, she guessed that he had bought his selection for their physical aptitudes for dexterous manual work. Most of the slaves were humans like her and featured nimble fingers or a soft or comely appearance.

She gulped as another 'profession' could be the reason of this choice: Prostitution.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, it hadn't been for prostitution. When the little troop of slaves had gained the building of the merchant, she had released a breath she didn't remark she was holding. Apparently, it was a manufacture, a silk manufacture. Only the origin of the silk was different: Giant spiders.

In fact, Shan Mao had remarked that the spider motif was present absolutely everywhere. Such ubiquity meant only one thing: Religion. Those Dark Elves prayed to a spider-type divinity, and it was not good.

It wasn't that a spider was a disgusting beast: It was because it was a predator, and a deadly one.

She knew, for having learnt it at school, that some spiders were able to capture preys much bigger than them. And she wasn't taking into account their poison and web capacities or how they ate.

After having seen and felt the cruelty of those people, she had no doubt that their major deity wasn't a gentle one.

One good thing was the smattering of English blend with some other terms that their "Master" was using to explain a few things…and demonstrate others. That enabled Shan Mao to understand the expectations in her new life.

Marg was his name, and we were his new silk harvesters and silk throwers. There was only one word: 'Obey'. Or more exactly three words since it were more: 'Obey or die'.

Once he was done with his 'motivation' speak, he let another slave to talk to us about the specific of our tasks.

He was a human male of undetermined age as the ordeals of his existence among the Dark Elves had ravaged his features. He was brutal and hit violently one of our numbers to impose silence. He presented himself as the 'Slave Overseer' among the slaves and his task was to ensure we did a good work up to the standard of their masters.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a week into her slavery, Shan Mao had begun to adapt. At least, she was accepting her situation while still wanting desperately to go home or more simply, escaping this hellhole.

She had rapidly understood that there was a caste system even within the Slave community, if such a word was usable in this world. There were the Disposable Slaves, the Valued Slaves and the Flesh-crafted Insects.

The Disposables Slaves were those who served for dangerous works where the life expectancy was short and death, if brutal, was almost welcomed. They hauled rocks from mine collapses, hauled waste from the vast cisterns beneath the rich houses, fed dangerous beasts, or worse, were used for experimentation by various Dark Elves. Whatever they did, they were exposed to danger all day everyday and had only three hours of rest per day. They were ill-fed and abused by their masters, and the dead served as material for the horrible corpselights that lit the city.

Shan was among the Valued Slaves. That was those who had a skill or feature usable for producing some works for the Dark Elves. They could be laboratory assistants, smiths, scribes or entertainers.

The last category was the Flesh-crafted Insects. It was curious to think of them as slaves as they were, she hoped for most, non sentient. Shan encountered them when a female Dark Elf came into the shop with a giant centipede to carry what she bought. It was a freakish mutant that was almost emanating a sickly aura of chaos and insanity. Traumatized by the encounter, she nonetheless listened to her Overseer talking about the Flesh-crafter's Guild that used dark sorcery and alchemical poisons to transmogrifying living insect into purpose-built living tools. She shivered in terror as she heard the man saying that the rumour was that disobedient slaves were often punished by being sold to the Guild and metamorphosed into insect-like humanoids.

The work day of Shan Mao began by being roused from sleep within the slave dormitory. All the new slaves, regardless of sex, were sleeping in the same dormitory which was monitored by the Slave Overseer. For now, they hadn't be any incident within the dormitory regarding violence.

They then took a copious but bland meal made mainly of mushrooms and lichens that was prepared by the cook staff. The Overseer delivered then the assigned tasks of the day. It was the first exposition for Shan to the nutritious imports in the underground realm. She discovered many things. 'Sporebread' was bread made with the flour of grounded spores from 'Bluecap Fungus'. 'Ripplebark' was a shelf like fungus that resembled nothing so much as a mass of rotting flesh and was surprisingly edible and tasted rather good when prepared. The spores of the 'Zurkhwood' were also served prepared. Those spores were simply the by-product of the exploitation of this giant mushroom that served as a source of timber. Many items were crafted from Zurkhwood instead of wood. The various sources of proteins came from bats, fishes, lizards, insects such as beetles and crickets and a curious creature looking like a bison known as 'Rothé'. Shan Mao had quickly discovered that some races were living underground and that some people clearly came from the surface as they weren't used to the different food.

The work day consisted mainly of menial tasks, such as fetching a tool for an experienced slave or giving food to the silk-producing spiders. Those creatures were held in a specific cage that prevent any movement and let accessible their silk glands and the head. Feeding them consisted to push a living animal, such as a rothé, to its mandibles and let it suck it dry. To her horror, one time, it had been the corpse of a freshly killed Drow that she was forced to feed to the arachnids.

Sometimes, Shan was taken apart by a dark elf and showed how to extract the silk from the glands by stimulating them with a gentle finger and promptly gathered the sticky thread on small wheels. Shan Mao had some difficulty with 'Undercommon', the mangled version of English the dark elf used, but she had curiously less difficulty than with 'Common', the surface version used by much of the slaves. A work day was ten to twelve hours of works depending of the demand on silk. After that, they received six to eight hours of sleep.

The harvesting of silk was much easier than the throwing of it. It required steaming the cone of silk then stretching the loosened strands on a complex threading machine that twisted the very delicate strands into solid threads. The process is repeated until the required thread is enough for cords, sheets and so on.

Here and there, Shan and her fellow slaves managed to snatch a few hours of unsupervised time. Most spent the time playing simple card games or idly chatting about the events of their daily lives. Those few times were a gold mine of information for Shan Mao as she had great difficulty to integrate herself among the slaves. Her exotic aspect as an albino and her foreign attitudes were casting her as an outsider. Worse, her red eyes were too much like the eyes of their captors.

Nonetheless, she learnt that she was in a vast underground realm known as 'The Underdark' and where many races, most of them evil, dwelt and plot. The Dark Elves were known as 'The Drow' and were the worst of all the evil races in the Underdark. This planet was known as 'Faerun' and one man, identified as a priest of the surface, referred to this universe as 'The Forgotten Realms'. But forgotten by whom and why?

Under the bite of the whip from the Slave Overseer, Shan Mao leant rapidly the three main rules of the slaves: A slave must not speak to a Drow unless first spoken to. A slave must obey the orders given by any Drow or Overseer, provided those orders did not conflict with any standing orders given by the owner. And, finally, a slave must immediately attempt to follow any orders given by its master.

She had also noticed that only rather old slaves, most likely those who had proven their loyalty and dependability, were given more freedom and could travel through Sheoloth.

That was the final piece of knowledge she exhumed from her environment. This underground city was known as Sheoloth. It was built around the shaft of an old volcano and was a former surface elves' city. The Drow had conquered it in the past and they reigned supreme on all their neighbours. The nearest surface realm was the 'Great Rift' home to the Deep Realm of the Gold Dwarves. The city was also near the underground vast body of water known as the 'Glimmering Sea'.

The founder was an Archmage named Karzai and was a sort of Honoured Ancestor among the Drow. Most of the building materials were made of native stone, but the Drow also used Construction Silk from giant spiders and resin produced by flesh-crafted insects. Shan Mao had seen the first part of production of those materials and it was the equivalent of her world hard plastics. One thing, she could say about the city, was its rather primitive sewer system. Waste was gathered by sector and sent down 'the Falling Road', the main shaft that led to a constantly active magma pocket. There were also flesh-crafted insects that lives on and recycled the waste.

The principal sources of light were the corpselights, a magic named 'Fairy Fire' made permanent and a variety of glow moss.

The complex of warehouse, production building and shop that was the property of Marg was located in one of the twenty-five wards of the city.

The ward was named 'Granite Circle', for the ring shape of its cavern and the sloping rows of houses climbing in neat arcs on the eastern side of the ward. When she was brought in the ward, Shan Mao saw that it was crowded and haphazardly constructed. It was a real labyrinth, and the locals were not terribly ready to lend a helping hand. She also deduced that the ward circled around the volcano upper shaft that was the back bone of the city.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next week was not so good overall. The slaves had settled down and took their marks in the new environment. It was time for various fights about power among the slaves and pecking order.

Once again, her foreign origin had hindered her and she was near the bottom. At least, that was what a big fellow tried to point to her when he stole a big part of her foreign meal.

Shan Mao had reacted badly at that. Already feeling on the verge of breakdown in this strange universe without any familiar point of reference, she lashed out as her fear, anxiety and anger mixed and exploded.

It took several people to stop her. Shan Mao found herself emerging from a berserker-like trance. She blinked as she felt held by at least four persons on the dry ground. She had a sore throat and was bewildered to understand that it was because she had screamed at the top of her lungs until now.

In front of her, the one she knew as a priest was using his power to heal…

She gasped. The person treated was the bully that stole her meal. He was bloodied and seemed to have made fifteen rounds with Bruce Lee. With a sinking sensation, she realized that the various bruises on her were the result of her relentless and merciless beating on the man with her martial skills.

She found herself more isolated after that. The slaves were now purposely avoiding her and casting her out from the meagre net of information she had till this incident. She quietly and silently sobbed under the rags of her couch during the 'night'.

Despite numerous tries, she was rebuked by her fellow slaves. She understood why, and she couldn't denied that she had an episode of insanity due to the conditions she was living in, but she felt abandoned and her heart began to withdraw and built protective shield. Was she condemned to be alone in her quest for home?

Unfortunately, her little altercation had been witnessed by the Slave Overseer, and the jaded and ruthless human had smiled when he thought of how he could exploit her on this particular incident.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Neshad Luzkar laughed silently as he received the last report from the spy she put to his recent discovery. Apparently, the young girl had more bite than she had revealed when he captured her. He saw the particular magic of the Mark of Lolth at work in that fact.

So the young albino girl was capable to fight, huh? Well, he had to arrange for a way to test it…properly.

He thought about it and suddenly his red eyes widened in realisation and secret joy. This time, his laugh was audible and froze the blood of his bodyguards outside his office. It was never a good thing to have a Luzkar laughing about something…or someone.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shan Mao kept her eyes down although her awareness was trying to keep track of everything around her. Since the incident with a fellow slave, she had been granted minor leeway with her Master and the Slave Overseer.

Well, leeway in the form of being a beast of burden when the oldest and loyal slaves of Marg, the silk merchant, needed to buy things for them or their master.

She didn't regret being outside, she regretted the way it had happened. Trading the occasion to see the outside for her status among the slaves left the bitterness of ash in her mouth.

As she had seen before, the whole city was built around the Falling Road, a volcano shaft. There were two main ways of access. In the lower part of the Road, the water ways were exploited at the level of the ward 'Ebon Dock'. The upper exits were closed by the 'Night Seal' and the 'Sun Gate'.

All in all, Sheoloth would have been a nice and beautiful city, if it wasn't the showcase of the cruelty of the Drow race.

Seeing all this, Shan Mao felt the sting of despair as she realised that escaping this hell would require careful and long term planning, and also a great deal of luck. One thing was sure, she needed to obtain a status among the Drow, and not as a slave or practice target, or worse, guinea pig.

She felt mortified as she realised that in such a world, where life was cheap, she would need to shed blood… A lot of blood, and she feared not restricted to Drow blood.

She was a young girl, lost in an unknown world and her greatest achievement, her skill in Martial Arts was about to be stained if she wanted to survive and perhaps go home.

She didn't take formally it, but there was an unspoken oath within the Martial Arts Community: Protect the weak. Martial Arts were for Defence, never for Attack.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next week, when she followed her Master and the Slave Overseer on the Falling Road, Shan Mao felt a sick feeling in her stomach. Sweat was shinning on her forehead and she was forcing herself to not wriggle her hands in anxiety. Everything in her guts was screaming for danger.

And yet, she couldn't do anything. Not if she wanted to stay alive and able to look around her to construct a proper mental map of the city to help in her escape.

Her master was preparing something with her as a participant, willingly or not. The day before, she had been examined again by her master. Even now, the memory of his moist hands on her skin as he looked everywhere, without any consideration for her, was making her tremble in disgust and loathing.

She was aware that the Drow didn't have the particular taboo of her society. The Dark Elves were proud of the beauty of their bodies and showed it without shame. Even some armour was designed to reveal a maximum of skin while still protecting it.

The little group reached nearly the bottom of the main shaft and entered the ward known as 'the Shrieking Hive'. And Shan Mao promptly understood why it was named so.

There were low ambient, but nonetheless perceptible sounds that were emanating from behind the collectively closed doors of the old and half-collapsed buildings: The raw savage screams that could only come from the throat of victims as well as predators.

The advantage of Shan Mao due to her genetic quirk was working against her as her senses, mundane and Chi-based, perceived the mad circle of life and death chasing its tail into a deadly spiral.

Bodies were piling in stinking heaps at the ends of passages and she instinctively drew nearer her two captors. Despite their cruelty and the potential danger, it was surely preferable to whatever caused…'that' in this ward.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Haedistika was a collection of businesses located in the centre of the ward. They operated normally most of the day, but for four hours.

During those four hours, the shops became central points of sale on violence in all its forms. Be it sex, torture, fight or insane slaughter, it could be bought here. And Shan Mao found herself in the heart of it.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes: It's been a while, but a review inspired me enough to rekindle my old creative flame. I just hope it won't extinguish for a few more chapters.


	5. First Blood

**THE CAT AND THE SPIDER**

Disclaimer: I own nothing except Shan Mao.

Notes: We're finally entering the meat of the subject. Shan Mao is going to enter a bloody world where life is cheap and where the dagger that end it is worth more.

**Chap 4: First Blood.**

The interior of the Haedistika reminded Shan Mao of a Hard Rock concert hall, especially if you are near the crowd AND the speakers.

Unfortunately, that only took care of the sounds and the heat. The smell was another thing. It was a blend of sweat, blood and various waste products that seized at the throat and sent your heartbeat into the high by the mere implications of WHAT could have produced that particular mixture.

It was a circular arena, carved into the ground, with bleachers around it. Curiously, the arena was rather well illuminated by four giant brass braziers.

In the immediate vicinity of the arena were numerous cages of woods, metals and stones. Various forms could be distinguished inside, some humanoid, others not. Some were silent, others were screaming for blood or release. None were asking for mercy.

She immediately understood why SHE was here, but too late. Kicking and screaming, she was thrown into one of the cages by some smirking and laughing Drow whose work was to manage the "Pit Fighters".

The Haedistika was the place in the 'Shrieking Hive' ward where those without any other means were gambling their lives in some bloody fight to the death in the hope they caught the eye of some in power.

Of course, that was only for the Drow. Even outcast, half-breed or simply unlucky mercenary, a Drow was a Drow and was superior to all. Unfortunately, most of the time, the Haedistika would only procure to the Drow what it was built for: A spectacle of blood and violence to ease the angst of their dark souls at the detriment of mere cannon fodder and easy-to-replace mercenaries.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shan Mao was again on the verge of breakdown. The albino Chinese girl was huddled in a corner of her cage and was trying desperately to retain her sanity.

'_By the Yama Kings! What did I do to deserve such Fate?!_' Shan couldn't lose control like the last time. This time, her life was dependant on her self-control and…on her luck: A very high dose of luck.

Control depended greatly on awareness of self and of the outside, so, with great wariness, Shan turned her attention outside the cage.

The crowd was beginning to heat up in the waiting of the…spectacle. The 'tavern wenches' were circulating with food and drink. They were goblins, green-skinned little creatures of four feet at best with sullen but clearly evil eyes and long noses and cruel teeth. The Drow were considered them like furniture with the occasional kick and… She gasped as one of the Drow carelessly cut off the head of one of the goblins without batting an eye. He seemed more annoyed by the fact he had to clean his blade from the blood than by killing the creature.

Already, a misshapen black-skinned humanoid creature with a lot of scars was speaking from the arena in a garbled, but still musical language and 'it' was also gesturing a lot. Shan nodded at herself: The Drow language seemed to be composed of two different languages. One was verbal and almost too beautiful to be from such a dark race. The other was a silent gestured language and apparently as efficient as a verbal one.

She frowned and blinked. She didn't understand either, but she was almost sure that the creature was 'presenting' the program of tonight and was also rousing the crowd into a screaming and enthusiast mass. No doubt that gold was flowing out their pockets as the tension was climbing more and more.

She blinked again and was bewildered to recognize the 'creature' as a horribly disfigured and heavily scarred adult male Drow. She really didn't want to speculate about what happened to give him such an aspect.

She focused on the arena: There was a part that was reserved for the powerful with individual seats and even some private booths carved in the cave wall where the building was raised. The rest of the plebe was using plain bleachers. In fact, many of them were using punches, kicks and the occasional thrust of a dagger to gain a better place and a better view on the centre.

The centre of the arena was a twenty metres diameter circular patch of clean sand. Shan was intrigued by that. The Haedistika was hardly a clean place, so why having such a clean patch of sand?

Her eyes widened in sudden understanding: To better see the blood as it was spilled inside the arena. She passed her tongue on her dry lips. Her master and overseer had made her fast before they hauled her here and it was a good thing: Fighting with a full stomach would have made her sick in such an environment. She blinked at the way her thoughts were turning. Was she already resigned to her fate in the arena?

She turned her attention on the cages around her and raised an eyebrow: There was a distinction in them. Most of the cages on one side were full of beasts and monsters, and most of those on her side were holding humanoids. With a sick feeling intensifying, she realized what exactly the term 'Pit Fight' meant: She had a vivid example before her.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first 'fight' of the night opposed a human against half a dozen of goblins. With dread, Shan realized that she knew the man in the arena. He was one of the humans when she had been captured… Was it only three weeks ago? It seemed an eternity from her perspective.

She pressed herself to the bars and searched the eyes of her fellow slave. He was clutching a battered small sword, his only weapon, in his nervous hand. He caught the gaze of the albino girl and could only read one thing in it.

'_Live!_' Shan was praying to God and the old Chinese gods and goddesses of the past, to any deities who could hear her for the sake of the man. He seemed to have drawn strength from the only person supporting him in this madhouse as he suddenly launched himself into the enemy mass with a war cry.

Despite herself, Shan cheered for the fighter as he began to cut in the opposition. Taking the initiative seemed the only way to win against an enemy in superior number. She winced as he took a few cuts and blood dropped in crimson tears on the yellow sand.

A warning shout tore out of her throat as she perceived the movement in the rear of the man, but too late. A small, stocky dwarf-like creature with a pale blue-white skin, bulbous white eyes with no irises or pupils and coarse and white hair had suddenly jumped out of his hidden spot to stab the human fighter in the back. Shan realized that the creature had hid itself in the mass of the goblins and used a cadaver as cover to sneak into the unprotected back of the human fighter.

The man screamed in agony as the dark poison coating the dagger deep in his right kidney affected him. The last of the goblins rushed to finish him, knocking him down before silencing him for eternity by slicing open his throat.

Shan had turned away from the death-strike, trying to contain her grief and anguish. She tried to ignore the cries of the crowd screaming for more blood and the snickering of the monsters in the arena.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shan was feeling depressed and hopeless as the second fight began. Until now, she had, naively, hoped that she would have a fair chance in the upcoming fight. But, the Drow didn't believe in fairness, they only wanted blood.

The second 'fight' was more of a slaughter and opposed a Halfling with a dagger against a giant centipede. Shan was flabbergasted because the Hobbit looked like so much Frodo from the Lord of the Rings film that she almost believed she was in a nightmare for a few moments. But the sounds, the smells and the pain from the past whip strikes on her back were invalidating this path.

The monstrous insect was, at least, three metres long and it was finished in an instant. It pounced on the visibly weakened Halfling and hit him with his poisonous sting. Shan then realized with growing horror that the 'spectacle' was not finished. The Drow let the insect began to feast on the rapidly dying Halfling by injecting its stomach contents in its prey and sucking the 'soup'.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The third fight bolstered the dim flame of hope in her heart. He was a stout dwarf with a reddish beard and one war axe in each hand. And he wasn't broken: He hurled insults back at the crowd in Undercommon, damning them to the Abyss, telling what their mothers did to have them in extremely gory and shocking details and so on.

He was put against a large goblinoid seven feet tall with coarse hair on most of its body. Its mouth was full of long, sharp fangs and its nose was much like that of a bear. It was armed with a Morningstar, a dagger and was protected by some spiked armour on its left shoulder and a wood shield.

The dwarf sneered at the monster and he rushed before a signal was given, screaming the name of his god, Clanggedin Silverbeard. It was finished in a few strikes.

The dwarf engaged the weapon of the monster with his right axe, whirled inside the aperture between the shield arm and the locked weapon and viciously backhanded the monster with his left axe: The surprised-looking head of the goblinoid flew in the air.

The dwarf raised his arms and screamed for victory. A scream repeated by Shan, but drowned by the angry cat-calls of the crowd. The dwarf was taken back to his cage by the use of whips and spells.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The fourth fight was the occasion to see how the Drow fought. He was a young male, at least at her eyes, but she had the intuition that taking on the appearance of the Drow at face value was a lethal error.

He was confronted to a Minotaur and was using two scimitars in a curiously graced dance of death. The Drow was clearly the more skilled of the two and was demonstrating the old conflict between power and skill.

It was also a vicious spectacle as the Drow acted liked a bullfighter by taking his time and lightly wounding his opponent at each passes. To the eyes of Shan Mao, the Drow was clearly using a learned skill along with perhaps a racial preference.

She looked again at the crowd and could see that many Drow were using a twin style of some sort as most of them had double weapons, like scimitars, short and long swords.

The Drow showed off by beheading his adversary with a crossed strike of his two scimitars. He raised his weapons in victory and the blood froze in the veins of Shan Mao as a name was repeated like praise in the singing language of the Drow: 'Lolth'.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The fifth fight was perplexing. A monster with grey fur and features like a bear was confronted to a young woman. The woman hold the characteristics of a Drow with her red eyes, white hair and pointy ears, but her skin was a dark dull grey instead of the standard jet-black she saw until now.

The crowd was also clearly divided between sneering at the young woman and rooting for her. She was, however, extremely skilled and was using an acrobatic style where she mixed throwing daggers with a slender long sword.

Shan Mao noticed the dull black aspect of the metal composing the blade and frowned as she could almost see a faint violet aura around it.

The monster managed to hit the woman once during the fight, but she used the throw to take élan on the wall of the arena and pounced back in the back of the monster, scoring deep hits before it could mount a defence.

The female Drow-like achieved her enemy by plunging her blade in its heart. Focusing on the names used by the crowd and the pit fighter, Shan discerned the word Lolth again, but it was associated to another: 'Selvetarm'.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sixth combat was putting two different reptilian races. One was a tall humanoid that looked like a cross between a powerfully built human and a lizard. It had clawed hands, a long tail and toothy jaws. It was armed with a stone-axe and a shield made of the shell of a big turtle.

The other was a little shorter than a human. It had spindly but muscular arms and walked erect on its squat legs, trailing a long slender tail. Its head was lizard-like and crowned with a frill that extended from the forehead to the base of the neck. Its eyes were black and beady. It was armed with a stone tomahawk and was also holding two javelins. But the worst was the stench emanating from it.

Despite the distance, Shan clearly sniffed a sample of its smell and almost gagged. The other lizard-like was also clearly reviled by the stench and was snarling.

It was an almost equal fight. The taller of the two had clearly the strength advantage, but the stench of the other and the reach of its javelins proved to be an obstacle. In the end, both revert to savagery and tore in each other, searching for the throat.

The oily and musk-like substance on the smaller one helped him out of the grappling of the stronger one and it buried its fangs in the neck of its adversary.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With dread, Shan Mao had finally remarked that they were following the order of the cages for the fights as the seventh one began. If she counted right and baring any surprise, it should be her turn after this one. She gazed into the last cage on the other side, but could only make the outline of a sitting humanoid and two dull yellow eyes piercing the darkness.

The pit fight in the arena was opposing a hulking brute of nine feet tall to a bald dwarf with dark grey skin.

The brute had a thick hide covered in dark warty bumps. It wore smelly skins and its hair was long, unkempt and greasy. It was waving a big club and snarling at its diminutive opponent.

The dwarf betrayed no emotion. The grim face was accented by his lean and hard physique compared to the red-bearded dwarf of the third fight. His eyes were black and cold and he boasted a short, wiry beard of iron-grey hair. He was clad in studded leather armour and was armed with a war-hammer.

The dwarf then sneered at his opponent and simply disappeared into thin air. Shan gasped at the feat and immediately suspected magic at work. She focused her senses on the arena and smiled after a few instants.

Marks of boots were visible on the clear sand and were progressing in the back of the monster. This one was rather cunning as it was waving his club around it in the hope to catch his invisible opponent.

As the dwarf stroke on the kneecap of the brute, he lost his invisibility. He jumped back to dodge the return strike of the monster and once again seemed to focus on something. Shan's eyes widened when the dwarf doubled his mass, height and reach along with his equipment.

Crippled by the knee strike, the brute couldn't mount any semblance of defence and his skull was promptly cracked open under the hammer blows.

She then gulped as her turn had finally arrived.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shan Mao was pushed in the pit by the Drow who poked at her with spears. In front of her, her adversary was seemingly lowered on the sand.

He was a tall humanoid that looked like a primitive human with grey-green skin and coarse hair. He had a stooped posture, low forehead and a pig-like face with prominent lower canines that resembled a boar's tusks. He wore a leather kilt, two metallic bracers and leather sandals and was unarmed like her. His malignant yellow eyes bore into the young girl.

Shan Mao blinked. In fact, her opponent looked like one of the Uru-Kai from the Lord of the Rings film.

He grinned at her and spoke in Undercommon with a harsh accent. "Well, look what masters have gifted Orruk for sweet food!" He cracked the joints of his hands.

That quickly settled down Shan more than anything else could have. She could feel the utter arrogance of the creature, his joyful anticipation of her future pain at his hands and…her death.

She didn't know from where was coming this surge of cool and complete concentration, but she welcomed it and dove deeply in it.

Already, she could feel her heartbeat slowing down as she took regular and deep breath. Each breath in was pouring Chi in the centre of her being and each breath out was evacuating stress and emotional taint from her very life force.

The Orc showed a toothy smile. "Know that Orruk is Orc CHAMPION of the Pit!" He raised his arms and eructed a roar that seemed to send the crowd into frenzy. Some were even screaming his name.

He spit on the ground and faced the young girl with his large open arms in a squat posture that reminded of a wrestler. "Come!" He smirked. "Orruk even let you hit first, little girl!"

Shan never fought for her life before and she didn't know how this Orc could fight: Running to his invitation would be foolish and potentially lethal. She instinctively let go of her standard and more offensive Wu Shu stance and went into an almost purely defensive Tai-Chi Ch'Uan posture: Her rear leg bent slightly at the knee, her forward leg a few inches off the ground, her left forward hand loosely outstretched and her rear right hand loosely at waist.

The Orc frowned. He had already seen fancy posture when he faced other races, especially the puny and softer inhabitants of the surface, but only those called 'Monks' would take a unarmed stance.

He grinned. Those few he killed before were the better he met in the Pit. Except for the stout dwarves, most humans were rather fragile and he enjoyed a long fight. The screams, the blood beating at his temples and the one dropping from his knuckles. THIS was why he was born for! Well, it looked like the puny human didn't want to attack first. Too bad for her. He attacked savagely, without warning. His fist flew in the face of the girl.

Shan Mao was surprised as the brute moved with a deceptive fastness for his bulk. She barely moved her face sideway in time and whirled into the attack, letting the punch sliding along her cheek as her adversary went beyond her position. Her right palm came from under in a 'Push Open Hand', striking the Orc in his unprotected belly as he turned to punch her again.

Invisible to normal senses, Chi exploded from her palm and knocked away the Orc for a good metre. Surprise shone into the evil eyes and he grunted at the impact.

Orruk blinked. He felt that strike. He smiled evilly as it only confirmed that he had a good fight before him. The victory will taste so much better with a little of his own blood to spice it.

Shan and Orruk began to exchange a series of strikes and counter-strikes as they tested each other for a few intense minutes.

Shan felt she had the measure of the Orc. He had more stamina and strength, but she was faster and more skilled. She had also a trump card with her Chi techniques.

As the fight continued, both combatants had tuned out the screaming crowd around the arena. The first decisive hit of the battle came as Shan unleashed a 'Reverse Turning Kick' straight from Bok Pai Kung Fu, also known as the White Crane Style and scoring a knock down on her opponent.

But Orruk was experienced and rolled out to avoid the following stomp. He chuckled as he swiped off the small leak of blood on his lips. "Good, good! Little girl is good!" He smirked. "Even if she hit like little girl!" With a roar, Orruk charged with extended arms, intending to bring down the Albino.

Shan anticipated his action and went for a low-postured Chi-anchored stance 'The Unshakable Mountain'. The two fighters met with a resounding clash and the crowd was awed to see that the lithe and much smaller human female had completely stopped the charge of the bigger Orc without moving from her spot.

Shan focused anew on her Chi. It was a golden occasion to do some lasting damage. "Skill will always defeat might, Orruk!" Her red eyes aimed at the vulnerable neck.

Orruk smirked. He was exactly where he wanted to be. "Girl speak too much! Too late for her, now!"

"What the…! ARGH…!"

Orruk seized Shan by the throat with his two hands and lifted her from the ground. "Ah! Ah! Orruk know as 'Crusher' in arena! Orruk strong in arms! Strong enough to break bull-man neck like twig! Puny girl is DOOMED!"

Shan struggled against the deadly stranglehold, but with no avail. She couldn't develop her full strength in this position as her reach was severely hampered despite her natural agility and flexibility. Her sword-hand strikes to the face and knee thrusts to the arms didn't even faze the resistant Orc.

Orruk smirked. "Girl stubborn! Die now! Easier than dying later! Can't break hold with puny strength! Orruk too STRONG!" He increased the pressure around the white neck.

Shan was reduced to holding the wrists of the brute in a desperate tentative to break the stranglehold. Already, darkness was dancing at the edge of her consciousness. Once she fell unconscious, death would follow quickly.

And still, she struggled. She wanted to live! She wanted to escape this hellhole! She wanted to see China and her family again!

The combination of oxygen deprivation and despair brought a memory from the past. Shan Mao remembered the old man that was her Tai-Chi Ch'Uan instructor.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An He was an old man whose past was forgotten and he lived in the back of a building. His only luxury was a small court constantly shadowed by the buildings. It was the only place where Shan Mao felt secure from the sun to practice outside.

The old man taught many of the women of the buildings during the mandatory practice of the morning and he taught in the evening those few he liked and who liked him.

Shan Mao had always the impression that the venerable An He used his past experiences as basic for his instruction.

It was such a pearl of wisdom that echoed in her mind.

The old man was smoothing his beard as he talked about concrete applications of Tai-Chi Ch'Uan. "The art is about Offence in Defence and Defence in Defence. Always in the reaction to the action. Always the Yin to the Yang. Use the path of the least struggle to emerge whole. Victory is living, not crushing."

An He ruffled the hair of one of his little students and continued. "One day, you will find yourself in a situation where following the path of less resistance is following death." The serious mien of the elder stopped any snickering. "When you are in such situation you have to take the offence on the STRONGEST point of your opponent. If it is his arms, break them. If it is his legs, aim for the knees and ankles." He looked in each of the widened eyes, imprinting his words in the young minds. "If it is his senses, strike at the nose and eyes. Wherever and whenever he is strong is where and when you have to focus your defence, your attack."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As darkness crept more and more, the words of his teacher and the words of Orruk danced within the mind of the Chinese albino.

'"_Orruk strong in arms!_"'

'"_Wherever and whenever he is strong is where and when you have to focus your defence, your attack._"'

'"_Orruk strong in arms!_"'

'"…_wherever…he is strong is where…you have to focus your…attack._"'

'"…_strong in arms!_"'

'"…_is where…you have to…attack._"'

Something seemed to click inside of her as she closed her eyes and her hands firmly seized the wrist bracers of the Orc.

Orruk chuckled. "Still breath in you? Not for long!" His arms rippled as he increased again the pressure.

The crowd was cheering and waiting for the death-strike. Then, despite the ambient sound, a snap was heard.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Orruk smiled toothily then blinked in confusion. "What…? By GRUUMSH'S EYE!?"

The crowd collectively gasped as they suddenly saw that it hadn't been the neck of the girl that snapped.

The two metallic bracers of the Orc were developing a fine web of creaks as Shan increased the pressure on them. Chi was pouring into her arms and hands from the core of her being. In her state of complete focus and light-headed feeling due to oxygen deprivation, the albino perceived another sensation within her.

For a brief instant, it was as if she was gazing to a bright glowing purple sphere hidden deep within her own soul. The humming sphere was circled by two sets of rings shaped like orbit of electrons. One set was a vibrant silver colour and the other was a very intense jet-black.

She didn't know why, but she didn't sense any threat from the sphere. Almost gingerly, she reached for it and the rings changed their orbits on their own volition to allow her access. A cold that wasn't unpleasant nor pleasant seized her whole being as she connected with the energy sphere.

The flabbergasted Orruk could only watch in confusion as his two bracers suddenly shattered and grunted in pain as the pressure of the two pale hands neutralized his wrists.

Despite the best effort of Orruk, the rag-clad lithe albino broke the lethal stranglehold around her neck. The angry red marks around her slender throat hinted as her close call with death.

Orruk could only stare in disbelief. "Impossible! How can such puny arms have so much strength! IMPOSSIBLE!"

Shan Mao opened her eyes. The normally red-pink colour was gone and replaced by a blazing purple. "AIYAH!"

As she screamed to better focus her inner energy, a purplish glow formed on her right leg as she attacked right between the two spread arms of the Orc.

There was a mighty thud sound as the kick connected with flesh, but Shan didn't stop at this. Using the sheer power of her own kick, she whirled and twisted into the air, gaining an impressive height and lightly landed on one foot and knee, eyes closed in exhaustion and her back to her adversary.

The disfigured Drow raised his gnarled hand, signalling the end of the fight and designing Shan Mao as the winner.

The crowd was confused and comments in Undercommon were flying.

"What!? The human girl wins?"

"That's impossible, look! The 'Crusher' is still standing!"

True, Orruk was still standing from where the kick had pushed him, but it was the only thing he was doing.

And suddenly, a purple haze exploded from the upper body of the Orc as if the strange energy brought with Shan's kick was only now having an effect. His tusks shattered and blood burst from his eyes, nose and mouth. He fell down, like a tree under the axe of the woodman, his unblinking yellow eyes dimmed and stilled in eternity.

The crowd gasped in awe at the exploit. A Drow remembered the purple glow of both the kick and the result on the Orc. It was the same colour that came from the '_Faerzress_': The underground magical radiation that the Drow used to bolster their dark magics and 'cooked' their dreaded artefacts.

A whisper danced around the black-skinned elves and grew. "Faerzress… Faer… Faeryl… Faeryl. Faeryl! FAERYL!"

The name grew until it became a roar. The newly anointed Faeryl opened her wary red-pink eyes to the wild crowd.

'_Animals! There're animals! They're drawn by blood and pain. That the only things they want!_' Her eyes turned to the rich side of the arena and she shuddered as she saw the glint of greed in the too many red eyes. '_That and power. They crave for power!_'

She turned to the corpse of her late opponent and shuddered anew. '_They would have rejoiced also if it was my body bleeding here on the sand. Probably more so._' She turned away from her first kill, before losing control of her stomach and nerves.

And then, her shamed gaze crossed a pair of ferocious black eyes. Eyes that expressed neither contempt or damnation, but joy! Joy at the end of another enemy. Another of those who wanted pain from all surface races was dead and it was good.

The young Chinese albino perceived pride and approval in the eyes of the red-bearded dwarf in his steel cage. And she raised her arm in victory.

The crowd creamed its approval as the new Pit Fighter acknowledged her win. But the red-pink eyes never wavered from the black ones.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And in many private booths, plans were made, gestures displayed and smiles bloomed.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the dimension known as the Demonweb Pits, what looked like a beautiful female Drow was laughing. Lolth raised a glass with a dark emerald liquid in mocking salute to her brand new toy that was showing big promises for her future entertainment.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes: "An He" means "Peaceful Crane".

The backstabbing creature in the first fight is a Derro.

The dwarf of the second fight is a Gold Dwarf and he was fighting against a Bugbear.

The woman of the fifth fight is a Half-Elf of Drow blood and she was fighting a Quaggoth. Selvetarm is the name of a Drow god in the service of Lolth as her champion.

The sixth combat put a Lizardfolk against a Troglodyte.

The dark grey dwarf is a Duergar with innate psionic powers and he was facing an Ogre in the seventh fight.

Well, Shan Mao has finally been baptized in blood with her new name as Faeryl. Faer means 'Magic' in the Drow language. Faerzress is the energy lingering from the powerful forces used in the creation of the whole Underdark.

That reminds me that I made a slight error in the sheet of Shan Mao in the prelude. Shan Mao's first Warlock Invocation is _Hideous Blow_ and not _Leaps and Bounds_. That was what she used when she kicked Orruk.


End file.
